Morgan Knowles' ban that now isn't a ban has become the big narrative leading into Saturday's Super League Grand Final. All eyes will be on the Cumbrian after St Helens successfully overturned his ban, which has caused a wave of attention ahead of the big game at Old Trafford.
It isn't the first time in Grand Final history that the week has been dominated by a sub-plot. Here, we take a look at three other occasions the build-up was centred around dramatic moments.
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Adrian Morley's late Bradford Bulls arrival (2005)
Adrian Morley will go down as one of the country's greatest ever, but his career wasn't without controversy. Everyone remembers that infamous red card 12 seconds into a game between Great Britain and Australia in 2003, but a few years later he was involved in another moment after signing for the Bradford Bulls.
Morley was in the NRL at the time playing for Sydney Roosters. However, when they failed to make the finals, Brian Noble picked up the phone and asked him to join the Bulls on a short-term deal.
"I didn't know if we had the juice because we were going to have to go on a run, I think it was 12 or 13 games," Noble said on the recent Super League Stories series. "The chairman said I had the chance of getting Adrian Morley, he was the best prop in the NRL at the time, he asked what I thought about a six or seven-game stint for Morley. I said 'that's hard to think about, yes please.'
Morley subsequently linked up with the Bulls for the final six games of the season, but it didn't sit comfortably with many given it saw Andy Lynch lose his place in the side after they made the Grand Final.
"Coming in at that stage of the season when all the current Bulls had sweated and toiled all year, I just come at the end, it was awkward but it was still something I was willing and something the club was willing to do. It was just business really."
Bradford went on to win the Grand Final against Leeds, Morley's former club who had also tried to sign him those weeks earlier. Months later, the Bulls were given a two-point deduction for breaching the salary cap in the season Morley arrived.
Lee Smith is cleared to play in the Grand Final - wins the Harry Sunderland award (2008)
Lee Smith is one of the more obscure winners of the Harry Sunderland award, but it was very controversial all the same. Smith had been found guilty of kicking Wigan Warriors' Phil Bailey in the play-off semi-final the week before. That could have seen him receive up to four matches on the sidelines. However, he ended up receiving nothing more than a £300 fine and therefore was free to play in the final.
Four days after being cleared, he scored Leeds' opening try in a 24-16 victory over, you guessed it, St Helens, and was named the game's best player. Controversial? You bet it. It is all eerily familiar to Knowles own story who, just like Smith, was eventually cleared to play in the match days before the showpiece event. Could history be about to repeat itself the other way on Saturday?
Zak Hardaker fails a drug test (2017)
On Saturday, Zak Hardaker will walk on the hallowed turf of Old Trafford for the first time in seven years. And yet, it was the time he didn't walk out at the Theatre of Dreams that is often remembered. Hardaker was set to play for Castleford Tigers in the 2017 Grand Final after a stunning individual campaign which had helped the club to their first ever League Leaders' Shield and first ever Grand Final.
Castleford had dominated the league that year and were preparing to make history, becoming just the fifth side to ever win a Grand Final. But they were rocked two days before the final when Hardaker was stood down by the club for a breach of club rules. It turned out he had returned a positive drugs test, which eventually resulted in a 14-month ban. The news stunned Castleford, who produced arguably their worst performance of the season in that Grand Final without him, losing 24-6.
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